The owner of a nursery school was remanded here on Monday on the charges of setting fire to the records room of the building over a property dispute.
Police said Mohammed Farooq’s father A K Sayed Ahmed and brother A K Shahul Hameed had given away a peice of their land in Kayalpatnam to the government for no charge. The Panchayat Union School was built on the land under the ownership of Farooq in the 1960s and several beneficiaries had donated resources towards its construction.
Sources said Farooq also owned a nursery school, Fathima Nursery, that was built on land adjacent to the Panchayat Union School. After the death of his father, Farooq decided to expand the school and add Matriculation sections to it. He asked the administrators of the Panchayat Union School to vacate the land. However, they refused let go of the property saying the land belonged to the government.
The long-standing dispute took a drastic turn on Sunday afternoon when some person entered the records room of the school after its working hours and set it on fire. All records and papers turned to ashes though there was little damage to the school building.
When the police grilled Farooq , he confessed to having started the fire to warn the administrators to hand the property over to him. He was subsequently arrested. Four other persons - Balasubramanian, Malaimegam, Anthony Raj and Sridhar - sufferedinjuries during the incident and were also arrested for aiding Farooq.